


The String That Ties Us Together

by perfdanik



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: AU, Angst, M/M, Now is Enough cut, SNS use, University, fidelity, i dont know what else to tag, very small Jaehwan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 00:10:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12923118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfdanik/pseuds/perfdanik
Summary: Where Facebook is evil and Seongwu doesn’t care - he just keeps scrolling. In which commitment is such a big word…?





	The String That Ties Us Together

**Author's Note:**

> This is a cut from Now is Enough... and it's a bit better to read this before that one. 
> 
> This turned out longer though so please forgive me...

Seongwu knows Daniel has a midterm exam next week that’s why he can’t pick him up after his internship ends at 5.

The boy is probably buried in his medical notes, cramming in more information than he can muster, while trying to salvage the research paper that was due by the end of the week.

Seongwu knows everything.

They’re not in any specific relationship. People around them just know they’re close, and that theirs is more than friendship. Labels these days are no longer important unless you’re resigned to the fact that you have to have a label to officially date exclusively. Not that they’re dating, Seongwu thinks. They’re beyond that.

Like the other people waiting for the bus in this freezing winter afternoon, Seongwu pulls out his phone and checks on Facebook. He normally doesn’t check the notorious networking site because once he does, it takes hours for him to get off it. And that’s never a good thing.

Well, it was never a good thing to check on Facebook at that specific moment because as soon as the home page loaded, a picture of Daniel locked in a girl’s arm, posing to the camera with a huge V sign appeared. The hashtag ‘atm’ didn’t help. Nor did the post detail of 15 minutes ago.

And Seongwu thought Daniel was freaking out that’s why he was not texting him.

Seongwu was even planning on surprising the medical student at his pad with chicken and beer (okay, soda for Daniel since he really needs to get a pass on this exam). He was even willing to proofread that damn medical paper!

But, sure, Daniel just leaves his place and hangs out with this - this - who’s that girl again? Seongwu was pretty sure he has seen that face before but couldn’t quite place it.

And the F-book was really demon sent as it pours salt on his wound - but Seongwu doesn’t stop scrolling. He clicks on the comments and was surprised to see more than ten. They were asking the girl who the boy was - blah blah blah - and someone even said for them to double date.

Screw you all, Seongwu thinks.

But he doesn’t leave the site. Instead he goes to the girl’s profile - her name still doesn’t ring a bell anywhere.

It felt like a liter of antiseptic was poured over Seongwu’s tiny wound as more pictures of Daniel littered the girl’s timeline. Sure, there were other people with them, but like half of them were just Daniel and the girl.

Daniel smiling while taking a selfie with her.

Daniel alone pouting at the camera.

Daniel with a cat (No, that’s not Peter nor Rooney thank god)

Daniel with his hands over the girl’s shoulder.

“What in the name of Harry Potter are these photos?” Seongwu blurts out, exasperatedly. He was talking to no one in particular, but the boy sitting next to him jumps away. “Sorry,” he mutters.

The stranger giggles and goes back to his seat.

“You must be a Potterhead,” the stranger starts.

Seongwu isn’t one, Daniel is. But he nods out of courtesy. He knows a few things here and there.

Besides, he isn’t going to invest in this conversation. He’s busy going through the girl’s profile and clicking on every Daniel photo he sees. He is annoyed and insulted, more than anything. Annoyed because half of the photos on the girl’s page has Daniel in it; insulted because Daniel didn’t have the decency to tell him he was in good terms with this girl. 

Good terms is an understatement, Seongwu thinks. 

The only consolation here is that the girl never replied to any question.

“She likes being vague,” Seongwu murmurs. “What a little bee, keeps everyone guessing.”

Seongwu continues to scroll through the comments and was half-appreciating the number of ‘likes’ on Daniel’s photos (goes to show how popular he is) but then realizes that they’re probably getting fooled by this girl who thinks she’s dating Kang Daniel.

But Seongwu is technically not dating him either.

“Hey, your bus is here,” surprised, Seongwu looks at the boy sitting beside him. “See, 5417?” Seongwu then turns to the direction the boy is pointing at. 

“What, are you a stalker or something?”

“Err, no,” the boy says standing up. “It’s my bus and I usually see you in it. You’ve got a face hard to miss, you know.”

“I get that a lot,” Seongwu smirks also standing up. He was planning to go to Daniel’s but these photos just ruined his plans. Daniel can go suffer with his medical books alone - if he’s even suffering right now, that is.

Seongwu wasn’t at all surprised when the stranger sat beside him. Seongwu didn’t try to hide staring at the stranger’s face, and the stranger didn’t seem to mind. Now that Seongwu has a good look at his face, he kind of remembers seeing him aboard the bus. Well, Seongwu thought he used to come with a guitar case, but the instrument is missing now.

“I should probably introduce myself so you can stop staring,” the boy giggles. “I’m Jaehwan.”

Seongwu takes the boy’s offered hand albeit awkwardly, “Seongwu.”

He doesn’t normally introduce himself to random people except when he’s in a bar. That rarely happens now though, since he usually goes with Daniel and you don’t really introduce yourself to random people when you’re out on a date.

A date.

Right. We’re not dating, Seongwu reminds himself again. 

Seongwu likes the idea of going out with Daniel, but he likes going out with other guys too without strings attached.

He pulls out his phone again and proceeded to scroll through Daniel’s timeline. He’s surprised to see more photos of the girl. Even Seongwu rarely appears on Daniel’s page. 

They don’t really have that much pictures together to begin with.

“I can tell you have a big crush on the med school hottie.”

Seongwu nearly jumps off his seat. Except he was seated by the window and there’s no room for him to jump when Jaehwan has practically caged him in.

“I can tell,” Jaehwan continues. “You’ve been looking at his pictures since earlier. I thought you were looking at Sejeong but then you kept clicking on Kang Daniel’s picture. Honestly though, even for a man, you’ve got some good taste.”

Seongwu blinks. “Who exactly are you?”

“Your fairy godfather?”

Seongwu makes a move to push him out of his seat but Jaehwan stands up abruptly. “Your stop is here. Let’s go!”

It turns out, Jaehwan was the loud boy living above Seongwu’s apartment. He hasn’t seen him around the apartment complex but Seongwu was rarely ever at his apartment to begin with. Jaehwan’s majoring in music and he’s proud to say he has a complete drum set in his unit. No wonder there seems to be a live band whenever Seongwu is actually home. Seongwu threatens to report the boy to the landlord for being loud but Jaehwan said the landlord was too lazy to install soundproof walls in his room the first month he was there. 

“But now it’s fixed, I can go as loud as I can and you won’t even hear a thing.”

Well, as long as you don’t crash down my apartment, I guess I’m fine with that, Seongwu thinks.

“And I really meant it when I said you have good taste. I mean, Kang Daniel is popular with both girls and guys in my department. Even I like him. But that’s beside the point. I do know him personally - we play soccer once in a while - so if you want I can hook you up with him. Like I said, I’m your fairy godfather.”

This boy - Jaehwan - clearly doesn’t know when to stop talking.

“Uhm, thanks for the offer, but no thanks,” Seongwu huffs tightening his arm around himself. The temperature has dropped way below his tolerance.

“Ah!” Jaehwan exclaims, fog coming out of his mouth. “You’re one of those people who rather admire from afar? That’s kind of cool too, but with your good looks, you should have more confidence!”

“Really, Jaehwan, I’m fine,” Seongwu smirks. He’s so keen on telling that he knew Daniel well enough to live in his apartment for days.

At the same time, though, it was kind of embarrassing that Jaehwan knew Daniel on a personal level but doesn’t know that Seongwu is the person Daniel sticks to like glue. Seongwu resigns to the fact that Daniel’s life doesn’t revolve around him anymore. 

They weren’t highschool boys anymore. Daniel doesn’t report to him every hour, and he’s not obligated to ask Seongwu’s permission to meet people. Heck, he can even date and Seongwu doesn’t have a say in it. And Daniel doesn’t have to feel guilty about it.

Truth was, Daniel has been tied to Seongwu for almost ten years. The boy was whipped with Seongwu’s charms he even followed Seongwu to the same high school.

University broke that tie as Daniel decided to pursue medicine. His lifelong dream was to be a doctor - a doctor together with Seongwu. But Seongwu didn’t pursue medicine and went to business instead. So that left Daniel chasing after his dreams of becoming a doctor alone. That didn’t stop the both of them from hanging out, or from Daniel holding Seongwu’s hands when he has the chance. If anything, time made him bolder that he’s even able to kiss Seongwu without the other boy’s consent and even get away with it.

They were more than friends, but they weren’t dating. They are, however, dating other people.

And Daniel seems to be fine with it. He was at Seongwu’s every call. He was present whenever Seongwu needs someone: someone to go with him to the mall, someone to watch late-night movies with, someone to cuddle, someone to hug, just someone to be with.

He’s so used to Daniel just being there when he needs him, Seoungwu can’t imagine a life when he can no longer have Daniel by his side.

But he can’t string him along. Daniel indeed has his own life to live and Jaehwan is a proof of that.

Seongwu bids the musician goodbye when the lift door opened at his floor. But Jaehwan follows him out. Jaehwan had been continuously talking but he was too immersed with his own thoughts that he just dismissed Jaehwan’s talking as singing. 

He suits the singer kind anyway.

“Wait a second,” Jaehwan says pulling at Seongwu’s arm. “I just remembered where else I’ve seen you.” Then a wide smile breaks out of his lips. “You’re that picture in Daniel’s wallet!”

“What?”

“Yeah, that was you! That boy dropped his wallet in the locker room last week. I found it but there was no identification so I couldn’t return it to him. Yeah, that’s why you looked utterly familiar. Yours was the only picture in that wallet - well apart from King Sejeong on the 1000won. But there was no way I could have returned it because - duh - you weren’t on any team. And Daniel later came and asked if I found a wallet with a single photo in it.”

Jaehwan then takes a breath and laughs, “He turned red when I asked him to describe the man in the photo. Ha. In any case I didn’t push for it and just let him see the wallet. He said,” Jaehwan takes another pause, “Well he said it was his.”

Seongwu just nods. Well, Daniel could have kept a photo of him somewhere, right?

“In any case, my friend, when in doubt, just talk,” Jaehwan makes his way to the stair well. “Talking to your special person is not as bad as you think.” 

And he disappears behind the door leaving Seongwu in deeper thoughts.

Seongwu enters his apartment and looks around. Daniel’s traces are everywhere. A pile of his large clothes are strewn on the couch. A pair of ripped pants are draped on one of the kitchen chairs. Even his soccer shoes are atop the rack. 

Indeed, what has Seongwu been thinking?

He has to do something before he and Daniel drifts apart. But he’s stubborn and he won’t cave in.

So he pulls out his phone again and logs in Facebook. He taps the cloud button and it launches the messenger. 

“I hope you’re happy with her.”

Send.

It wasn’t in Seongwu’s personality to be the one hungry for attention. But he really really wished for Daniel to be happy. He leaves his phone on the kitchen counter and curls into bed. 

Weeping is an understatement.

And he only stops when he hears a click from the door of his apartment.

“Seongwu-hyung?”

Just his voice and more tears spille from Seongwu’s eyes. He buries himself underneath the blankets, willing his tears to stop.

So he can properly talk to Daniel.

So he can properly express what he feels.

A moment later and Seongwu feels Daniel’s presence sitting on the edge of the bed. The younger man tugs at the blankets but was only able to see Seongwu’s tuft of black hair.

“Are you crying?” Daniel asks, this time pulling at the blankets. Seongwu knows his eyes were puffy, his nose was red, and tear stains mark his face. It was not exactly a pretty sight and Seongwu was rarely ever not a pretty sight. “What did I do? I’m so sorry. Please stop crying.”

It makes Seongwu’s tears fall out more and his heart constricts painfully in his chest when he realizes how pure Daniel is. It wasn’t even his fault this relationship has come to this.

Seongwu reaches out to hug Daniel. Just being in his arms makes Seongwu feel secured- he doesn’t know what he’ll do if Daniel ever leaves him.

“I don’t want you to leave me, Daniel,” he sobs, and Daniel’s body tightens around him. “Please, I’m sorry for everything. I thought just having you close was enough. I - I can’t lose you.”

“What are you talking about, Hyung?” but then his body freezes and he pulls Seongwu away. “I’m not going anywhere. Haven’t I promised you that before? I’m not leaving your side, ever. You can take my word for it.”

“You don’t need to be with me if you only feel obligated because of that promise you made as a highschool boy. You’re a man now, Daniel. I don’t mind if you just break it.”

“You’re obviously lying,” Daniel smiles. His smile relaxes Seongwu in more ways than one. He tries to calm down as Daniel squeezes his shoulders. “I will always go back to you. Even if you don’t ask me to.”

Daniel places a soft kiss on Seongwu’s lips - one that assures a promise. Seongwu kisses him back.

Because for now, Daniel’s promise in enough.

 

Seongwu wakes up beside Daniel. His companion is still wearing his glasses and Seongwu assumes that after their talk the night before, Daniel resumed to reviewing his notes while Seongwu sleeps.

Seongwu is glad his eyes don’t sting from the night’s crying as he makes his way out of the room as quietly as he can. He should be waking Daniel up for his class, but thinks five more minutes of sleep won’t hurt.

A bouquet of sunflower is sitting on his kitchen table.

A smile plays on Seongwu’s lips. He reaches a hand to it and notices a note buried amongst the big yellow flowers.

I’m still yours.

 

And Seongwu doesn’t mind if Daniel’s promise means he won’t be the only one. It was stupid to think in the first place that without any labels Daniel will be confined to him alone, when Seongwu thinks just about the same.

He didn’t own the man, and he wanted the freedom for himself.

Being committed to Daniel is something he can’t do at the moment. He was broken that way. He needs Daniel but he’s afraid to lose him at one point. Being together without any labels means that they can be together just about anytime they want to - no strings attached. And they don't need to worry about breaking up - the usual drama of friends turned lovers.

But both like to think there’s an invisible string tied to each of them. That’s why they can’t really lose the other. They were assured that no matter what happens they will have each other, regardless of time in this life, or place in this world.

That’s what both like to believe.

They were both broken that way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reaching up to here!
> 
> As usual, you can holler me @perfdanik on twitter.. drop prompts too! or we can talk about OngNiel hahahaha
> 
> So I wrote this in between working on numbers in the office (part of my job) and working on my thesis (part of school work). I mean I wasn't supposed to write this out yet but muse is a b* so I had to drop everything and finish this... my priorities are clearly not straight...
> 
> anyhow comments are love, kudos are too!


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